DOVER — Even though Santa Claus isn't coming to town for a few weeks, a festive spirit was in the air on Saturday as a number local hockey teams laced up the skates for their first real competition of the season at the 35th annual Dover High School Hockey Jamboree.

“It's like Christmas morning,” said Becca Murphy, a senior forward on the Oyster River girls team. “It's nice to get the juices flowing and it's nice to get to know your team and start to know everyone.”

Oyster River and St. Thomas/Dover were the two local teams among the six to participate on the girls side. Each “game” consisted of one 20-minute, running-time period.

Murphy said expectations are high for the Bobcats, but stopped short of making any predictions.

“I'm not going to say anything else,” Murphy said with a laugh. “We have a pretty good chance this year.”

The Dover boys team is scheduled to face rival Spaulding twice during the regular season, and possibly a third time should the two clubs meet in the Division II tournament. The Green Wave and the Red Raiders opened the boys competition on Saturday against each other, with Spaulding prevailing with a 3-1 win.

While aware that Saturday's mini-game had zero bearing on what will happen between the two teams meet in Rochester on Jan. 30, Spaulding senior defenseman Brian Chick said he wasn't going to complain with a strong showing against Dover, which eliminated the Red Raiders from the playoffs last year in the D-II semifinals.

“It feels good,” Chick said. “Last year, unfortunately we lost to them three times in a row. It feels good to kind of get that monkey off your back.”

Spaulding coach Paul George said Saturday's jamboree was about getting players in condition, used to their line changes and working on technical aspects of their game.

“It's been awhile since we put out a full effort against Dover,” George said. “It was nice just to get back on the right side of things, from our perspective.”

Spaulding opens its season at home on Dec. 12 against Winnacunnet. On Saturday, Spaulding was also scheduled to play mini-games against Berlin of Division I and defending D-II champion Bedford.

“I think it's fun for them,” George said. “The fact that they get to play against a variety of teams, I think they enjoy that as well.”

Dover senior forward Sean Lombard said the Green Wave were trying to come together as a team and to integrate the younger players into the flow of things.

“Our goal is just to get set for the season,” Lombard said. “Not just win everything, but to get prepared. It's good to be back on the ice again. Everybody's really excited to be here and we're all looking forward to a good season.”

Dover unveiled new uniforms for this season, which made their debut on Friday night during the Green Wave's scrimmage against Berlin. Lombard said the new threads earned his team's seal of approval.

“Seeing all those new uniforms as we walked into the locker room got us psyched,” Lombard said. “I think that's part of the reason we're expecting to have a good year this year. They're fantastic.”

For first-year St. Thomas/Dover girls coach Kevin Banfield, Saturday was a chance for to see his team up close in game conditions.

“There were a lot of good things,” Banfield said. “There's a lot to work on, too. We're still putting the lines together. There are still a lot of freshmen on the team who need to get used to the speed of the play.”

With five teams on the St. Thomas/Dover schedule in attendance on Saturday, Banfield said the jamboree provided an excellent scouting opportunity.

“I can see what the competition is like going forward,” Banfield said. “We can get the cobwebs out and the nerves out. We're playing everybody. Everybody gets a chance to contribute today.”

STA/Dover is coming off a 6-11 season in which it was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

“It felt good to get back and play together as a the team,” said STA/Dover co-captain Jill Holden “We'll get a good feel for how the team's going to be. I think we did well, put out some good effort.”

The Dover boys were scheduled to play four mini-games on Saturday, including contests against York (Maine) and Kennett of Division III. Green Wave coach Steve Riker said everyone on his roster was going to get a chance to

“We're going to get all our guys involved at some point in time,” Riker said. “We'll probably go with a varsity lineup the first two games, then go with a hybrid-JV lineup for the second two games.”